Well my season basically just ended so I dont have any games for 3 months until next season starts so Im gonna do a basketball like routine and do 300+ shots a day. Anyone like the idea of this? Also thats only part of my workout routine, Ill be doing about 5-8 hours a day everyday. Ill let you know how it goes guys...

Try and do different things to mix it up. If you have an Iphone or and Itouch, get the Nike Accuracy app, and go through all the drills on that, I do their programs for control and accuracy and I find it unbelievably good at improving everything about your game.

Just as fair warning. I started going everyday to practice my shots and developed a pain in my lower back. After doing research it seems this is common in footballers because of the motion of kicking a ball. So I highly suggest that you be doing Core strengthening excersizes as well.

bsc wrote:And I was hoping this was going to be one of the most epic drinking topics of all time...

Anyway, good luck with your work-out routine, 5-8 hours a day seems like a pretty dedicated strategy and I hope it serves you well!

On top of that I would try to play some pick-up games, because 3 months without a game is a long time.

are you crazy, who can take more than 50 in a day shots and have a liver to tell the story later on?

and also, he did say it was only a part of his routine, so maybe the other time might be playing pick ups etc....

I think its a good idea man, I use to do 100 a day, and I considered it a bit long, chasing after balls and all that... But if your that ambitious go for it, it will only do you good and after 3 months, you'll be shooting like a god.

yeah im gonna be playing pick up, doing strengthening, doing speed work and other skill work as well as visualization. Also no drinking involved lol...
Ive done at least 100 everyday this whole season on average and some weeks up to 200 so 300 wont be too much more. Ill let you know how it goes. Hows club football going panchester...

OMG do not do the amount you are talking about. It's just plain crazy. And you will injure yourself. You are putting your body under alot of stress kicking a ball. And I bet you have an incorrect kicking motion will you will imprint more into your muscle memory. Please I beg you not to do such an insane amount. In a game, 90 mins, how many times do you expect to take a shot? I bet not 300 times. You are wasting valuable time when you could improve other things. Just focus on breaking the kicking motion, and aim for about 10/15 extremely good shots with each leg. It's about quality not quantity. You must aim for training to mimic a game situation. How many football programs say do 500 pushups? None because its not specific to football. Do you think Lampard spends his time taking 300 shots? No he spends time on figuring how to get into a decent position to shoot. There is a certain point where things you do in training get over a requireed amount and it's not beneficial to you anymore. For me example, I could run 5K easy. Doing 5 30 secs sprints with a min inbetween, fu** me I thought I was fit I was gasping for air afterwards. And if I keep going with that, it will become useless. You don't do 300 sprints in a game.

Kind of unrelated, but my friend who plays cricket has been bowling all the way through his off season and now at the start of the season he has an injury preventing him to bowl.

So when exactly are you resting your body? When is the time where you muscles rebuild those little fibres that you break down everytime you take a kick?

I just want to say I'm not calling you an idiot or having a go at you. I'm just throwing things out there so you too realise that what you do in training must benefit you in a game or else why are you doing it?

ok.... so doing 300 shots will not benefit me... thanks for your input but im not really taking your advice, im resting my body and im gonna rest for 3 full weeks at the end of it as well as doing strengthening. 10-15 shots wont do sh*t, you have to hit a certain amount to become good....

I honestly don't think your concentration will last for 5-8 hours of quality practice every day. As met said, it's about quality not quantity. I'd rather do 2 hours of intense, densely packed training than 5 hours of monotonous, repetitive training.

Also, I recommend you add visualization and protein powder to your training. I did visualisation during every 50 strikes or so when I was practicing left-footed long balls, and it helped me fix my form so I wasn't practicing the wrong form. I helps if you have an ipod with some videos of good long balls from beckham, pirlo, etc. as well. Protein powder would help rebuild the muscles that are damaged from the hard training that you would be doing.

--
"There's someone out there practicing right now, and if you face him, he will win."

Well Im eating a very good diet and I have some protein bars but I dont think I can get protein powder but Ill look into it if i decide to get it. Also I do visualize everyday and as for not being able to keep focus for 5 hours+ a day is wrong because I train 30-40 hours every week so 5 hours is normal for me. Also Im playing on a pro team so Im not goofing off and doing the wrong things. Also Ill make sure to warm up and thanks for all your input. I was just seeing if any of you guys have ever done this kind of thing. Peace

Mufc I think you are misinterpreting their advice. They are not saying that the number of shots you are taking will not get you great form or not be beneficial, but that it is very stressfull on your muscles and bones no matter how in shape you are. The bottom line is that you risk injury by doing that many reps of shots. I would recommend that you lower that to 100 or less and concentrate the time you lose on getting stronger all around. Honestly, I believe that doing 100 shots a day for a while will get your form in top shape for games if you are creating game-like shots. If you combine this with strength training it will greatly improve your shot and reduce the swelling at joints and muscles in your legs and back. Trust me on this one, 300 shots might get you better form faster, but it will seriously mess up your body no matter how much you try to prevent it.

Guys I think you're too quick to place limitations on someone you know nothing about. Stop putting your beliefs on your limitations on someone else. If you cannot handle 300 shots a day then so be it, but frankly it's hardly an obsurd number.

You must aim for training to mimic a game situation

Why? And what level of game situation should we be mimicing? A high school level game? A world cup final?

When we're out by ourselves it's impossible to be mimicing game situations. Yes, we can do stuff quicker, but whats the point? If we cannot perform the skill "perfectly" with a basic drill then why do we want to practice being able to perform our sh*tty skill faster?

When we're out on the field we need to be working on our SKILL not our ability to perform our sh*tty\mediocre skill quicker. For example if you can only hit the corners 5% of the time when just fooling around with shots there is no reason to be attempting to trap a ball, turn, and then take a shot. Your technique just isn't there and adding in more steps you'll be focusing on the next "step" rather then what you're trying to improve.

Would you start out learning the "skill" of guitar by playing songs or by learning each individual chord\note (or whatever I know next to nothing about music lol)? What about juggling? Do you start off by using 7 balls? Or 2-3?

Yes, for people who are not planning to excel in a sport it is best to encourage them to do drills at "game pace". While the person may want to be good they are not going to put in the time to get the skills down to an art. Because of this their best bet is to be able to perform the skill quickly and poorly rather then slowly and poorly.

The above is the case for almost everyone in a sport. I presume though it is not the case with many people here. We need to work on developing the skill to perfection and not just performing it faster.

Idk, if any of this makes much sense, but hopefully it does.

"Somewhere along the line, we seem to have confused comfort with happiness"

Icy wrote:Would you start out learning the "skill" of guitar by playing songs or by learning each individual chord\note (or whatever I know next to nothing about music lol)? What about juggling? Do you start off by using 7 balls? Or 2-3?

That guys is crazy fast, but still perfectly clean
In order to acheive that you need to start out slow, play it perfectly consisently, then build it up over time
This is called Technical Mechanics Construction (Muscle Memory)

This method gets you extremely good results, just over a far longer time scale

To transfer this logic to football, 300 perfect shots a day obviously is the way to go... No exceptions

But remember to consider fatigue, if your getting tired or are incorrectly warmed up, you may not be striking with 'perfect' technique... Furthermore, you may not even know perfect technique (Doubtful considering your level of playing)

It is NEVER under any circumstances benifical to push through pain or fatigue when practicing technique

So 300 perfect shots a day obviously is the way to go... No exception... Provided your in good physical condition and understand how to read your bodies physical state